Xy Speed among contenders in wide-open Get Serious Stakes

Gerald Bennett, the Tampa Bay Downs training powerhouse, is stabling at Monmouth Park for the first time since 2015, having moved his summer base from Delaware Park. When shipping has been completed, Bennett will have about 50 horses at Monmouth, including Xy Speed, who is among the entrants in the $100,000 Get Serious Stakes, the ninth-race feature on Sunday’s card.

“The purses are up a little more here,” Bennett said, explaining his move back to Monmouth. “I know that makes for tougher competition.”

Truly, a purse twice what’s on offer wouldn’t seem out of place in the Get Serious, a five-furlong turf sprint that got 10 entrants in the main body of the field, with Sagamore Mischief and Hollywood Jet entered to run only if the race is moved to dirt.

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Xy Speed fits the spot well enough, but so, too, on their best day do Battle Station, The Critical Way, High Limit Room, Yes I Am Free, and Belgrano.

“These horses are ultra-consistent,” Bennett said. “Some of these horses are really tough.”

Claimed for $32,000 last September, Xy Speed immediately won the $100,000 Laurel Dash for Bennett. His winter turf-sprint form was strong, particularly a second-place finish Feb. 19 in the Turf Dash at Tampa Bay. Xy Speed won a starter-allowance race March 30, after which Bennett freshened him for this start.

“He’s doing good, but it’s a question because we’ve had so much rain,” said Bennett. “He doesn’t like it if it’s too soft.”

The Critical Way won the 2021 renewal of this race by three lengths last June, but he tested positive for levamisole, a medication used to treat parasites that is not allowed in a horse’s system on race day. The Critical Way was disqualified from his Get Serious win, with trainer Jose Delgado handed a 15-day suspension and a $500 fine. The Critical Way last started in a race on Dec. 1 – started but did not finish, as he was pulled up during the race and walked off the course. He’s posted quick drills for this comeback run but is a speed horse in a race that ought to be fast-paced.

High Limit Room and Yes I Am Free are drawn outside The Critical Way and both figure to lead or press. Yes I Am Free merits favoritism off wins in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint and the $100,000 Silks Run Stakes, but his last 11 turf races – and all his best performances – have come over the Gulfstream grass.

If all the pace shows up and the course does have some give, Belgrano can win at a fair price. Campaigned as a route horse early in his career, Belgrano has evolved into a very capable closing turf sprinter who nearly always runs to form at Monmouth. In October 2020, racing over a Monmouth course labeled “good,” he beat The Critical Way by a head. And last summer, also on “good” Monmouth turf, Belgrano won the $106,000 Rainbow Heir by two lengths.